Harp



June 4, `1946.

Filed sagt. 25, 1943 R. W. KONTER HARP 2 Sheets-Sheet l /CH/ID PV.KUNTER.

BY I @0f/zam June 4, 1946. R. w. KONTER HARP V Filed Sept. 23, 1945 2Sheets-Sheet 2 ojoooooooooo Z3 @CEE-@@QQOOooooooC-hoooooO`0OO00OOOOOOOOOOOO ATTORNEY.

Patented June 4, 1946 l UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICIE.y

HARP

Richard W. Konter, New York, N. Y. Application september 23, 1043, SerinNo. 503,473

1 Claim.

1 This invention relates to musical instruments, particularly to thoseof a plurally stringed type,

and more specifically to harps, zithers and the' like.

An object of the invention is to provide a device whereby the playing ofsuch an instrument may be artistically and correctly accomplished by anamateur, or even a novice.

I am aware that attempts have been made to provide a harp with stringdampers to automatically produce chords when a player glides with histhumb or a pick across the sounding or open strings but in all suchattempts the instrument was limited to the use of a few chords only, andeach chord required the use of a separate damper strip; such device waslimited to but a single key.

There are forty-three standard or conventionally used chords any one ofwhich may berequired to produce the desired harmonious accompaniment.All of these chords should be available and these cords should beavailable in each of the different keys.

Hence a further feature of this invention resides in the provision of aseries of adjustable damper carrying bars, which, upon being properlyadjusted, will cause the instrument to automatically respond to anyselected chords or arpeggios without attention r effort on part of theplayer.

A further feature is to provide a simple instrument which may be used byeven an unskilled player for accompaniment to the voice or other musicalinstrument, or may be used to play the melody together with theaccompaniment, as on I any other harp or the like instrument.

Another purpose is to produce an instrumentality, attachable to theframe of such musical instrument, and provided with means selectivelymaneuvered into position to produce results ordinarily attained only byeXpert players.

These aims, in addition to simplicity, pleasing appearance and ease ofoperation, are accomplished by the novel construction, combination andarrangement of parts hereinafter described and illustrated in theaccompanying drawings, constituting a graphical component of thisdisclosure, and in which:

Fig. 1 is a plan View of a conventional type of musical instrumenthaving attached thereto an embodiment of the invention.

Fig. 2 is a fragmentary sectional view, looking on line 2-2 of Fig. l,drawn to an enlarged scale.

Fig. 3 is a fragmentary transverse sectional view, looking on line 3 3of Fig. 1, also enlarged. i

Figs. 4, 5, 6, 7 and are detail views, in side elevation, of the fiveadjustable chord bars, characterized by the letters J, Q, M, R and Urespectively.

Fig. 9 is a view similar to Fig. 2, but showing a modification of theyielding support for the chord bars.

Referring in greater detail t0 the drawings,t

it will be seen that a sturdy frame, broadly designated by the numeralI5, is Acomposed of hollow members which include a straight side I6 anda shorter, ornamental side Il, connected at one end by an inclined basei8, and at their opposite ends by angularly disposed end members IS-IS;the entire structure constituting a sounding box. A bridge 20 is fixedlongitudinally on the base member I8, and another bridge 2l-2I' extendsalong the inner margin of the end members lil-I9.

Outwardly beyond the bridge 2| are a plurality of tuning keys 22 for thestrings or wires 23, which are trained about fixed pins 24, thence overthe bridge 2I-2l, extended in parallel to the base bridge 4ill, andtheir ends secured in conventional manner (not shown) to the framemember I8.

Such musical instrument construction is well known and recited only thata clear, comprehensive knowled-ge of the invention may be had,description of which follows:

Secured in register on the upper surfaces of the hollow side framemembers I6 and l1, are brackets 25, each having ve equally spacedrectangular recesses 26, open at their tops and having narrow notchesv2l in their bottoms; caps 28 are provided for the brackets to looselyretain each of the five slidable bars 29 to 33 inclusive, within theirappropriate recesses.

Each bar rests on pairs of resilient supports, such as the bent fiatsprings 34, shown in Fig. 2,

or the helically coiled pairs of expansion springsA 3d indicated in Fig.9, these springs being se-l cured at their lower ends in the brackets25, and serving to yieldingly support the bars in elevatedl positionabove the strings 23.

Closely adjacent one of the sides of each bar are adjustably fixed keystrips 35 to 39 bearing designations J, Q, M, R and U, respectively,

' and corresponding to the same designations on the elongated handleridges 4B, fixed on the slidable bars; these strips all bear the legendkey slat at one end, and at the other end, the characters F, Fit, G,Git, A, Ait, B, C, Ct?, D, Dif,"

and E.

Strips 35. 35 and 31, intermediate the foregoing,

Each of the slidable bars 29 to 33 may bear the notation chord strip ontheir Lipper surfaces and are provided on their undersides with aplurality of dampers 42, made of felt or other yielding material, invarying lengths, adapted to contact certain of the strings 23 renderingthem mute, upon proper adjustment and depression oi the bars.

In the present development, the instrument has a range of theconventional forty-three chords, in any major or minor key; the strings23 are tuned to the chromatic scale for over two octaves; numerals onthe key strips 35 to Sil show the direction to slide the chord bars 28to 33 to obtain the desired chord, the bars being manie ally shiftable.The bar 29 (J chord), can be adjusted to produce selec-tively, any ofthe twelve major chords; the bar 30 (Q chord) will produce any of thetwelve seventh chords; the bar 3| (M chord) will produce any of thetwelve minor chords; bar 32 (R chord) produces any of the threediminished chords, and bar 33 (U chord), any of the four augmentedchords.

Figs. 4 to 8 inclusive show the series of five slidable chord bars, alladjusted relative to the musical note C, as is apparent in Fig. 1.

If it is desired to play the C major chord, which is composed of the1st, 5th, and 8th notes of the chromatic scale, the dampers 42, on theunderside of the major, or J chord bar, are so arranged that whendepressed, over the chromatic C scale, all of the strings 23 arerendered mute. except the 1st, 5th and 8th strings, and these constitutethe major C chord when picked or struck.

When the J chord bar is moved backwards or forwards, that is, to theright and left, as viewed in Fig. 1, its 1st, 5th, and 8th positionsover the corresponding strings, forms another major chord; each chord isnamed the same as that of the string which is at the 1st position of theabove formation.

Thus, by being able to slide the major or J chord bar into diierentpositions, a player is enabled to sound any one of the twelve majorchords with the same J chord bar.

'I'he dampers on the Q chord bar act to mute all strings except the 1st,4th and 8th and 11th positions of the chromatic scale, and thus bysliding the Q or seventh chord bar to any position the player is enabledto get any of the twelve seventh chords. Similarly, the M or minor chordbar dampers act on all strings, except the lst. 4th and 8th, which formthe minor chords, according to the position used, enabling a player toobtain any of the twelve minor chords.

Sliding the diminished or R chord bar, the player may dampen all thestrings except the 1st, 4th, 7th and 10th, and thus obtain any of thethree diminished chords while the augmented or U chord bar acts todampen all ybut the 4th, 8th and 12th strings to enable a player onsliding the U chord bar to obtain any of the four augmented chords.

The adjustable key strips 35 to 39 are guides for a player; thus, ifplaying in the key of C, the letter C of all the key strips must bealigned at the key arrows 4 I.

To transpose to any key, as F, the letters F on the key strips will bealigned at the arrow 4|, and this puts the instrument in the key of F.

On the elongated handle ridges 40 of each of the chord bars is an arrowto serve as a guide for adjustment of the chord bars to the chordindicated by the numerals on the key strips. For the beginner, aninstruction book may be provided and in said book, the song or selectionwould be set up with letters and numbers so that by sliding the arrow onthe handle ridges 40 of the indicated chord bar to a predeterminednumber on the key strip, the player will obtain the desired chord asindicated in the instruction book, in which the song is contained.

In any song in the book, if a lettered-number, say, J-l, is indicated,then the operator slides the chord bar J to numeral l of the key stripwhich then gives the desired chord. If the next lettered-number in thesong reads Q-B, then the Q chord strip is slid so that its arrow pointsto number 8 on its adjacent key strip, and this would then be the properchord. The operation of the instrument is very simple. The instructionbook, through its lettered-numbered arrangement would indicate to theplayer the position to which any particular chord strip is to be slidfor a desired chord, and would indicate thus where the strip is to bedepressed for sounding the desired chords. The player may sing, hum orwhistle the song concerned and read the music from the song sheet in theinstruction book The letter will tell him which strip to apply and thenumeral or number would show him where to slide the chord strip for thedesired chord, as J-l and Q-8 in Long, Long Ago, for example. It will beundersood that this explanation merely indicates the use of theinstrument for accompaniment and in which case an illustrativeinstruction might appear as follows:

J-l Tell me the tales that to me were so dear, Q- Long, long ago; long,long a- J1 go. Sing me the songs I delighted to hear, Q-S Long, longago, long a- J-l go.

From the foregoing it is thought that the construction and operation ofthe device will be apparent; however, the disclosure is to be consideredas suggestive, rather than limitative, as it is obvious that manychanges and modifications may be made within the scope and tenor of thesubjoined claim.

What is claimed as new and sought to secure by Letters Patent is:

A damping device for a plurally stringed instrument of the harp type,comprising a pair of aligned brackets ailixed to the opposite sidemembers of the instrument frame, each said bracket haVIlg a plurality 0fOpenings therethrough, bars individually slidable through said openingsand transversely of said strings, said bars having a girth less than thewidth of said openings to be freely guided by the walls thereof, dampersaffixed in spaced relation longitudinally along each said bar inconfronting relation to the strings and spaced from at least onelongitudinal edge of the bar, said dampers being adapted to mute certainof the strings when said bars are selectively depressed, resilient meanssecured to said brackets and bearing against said bars to urge them awayfrom the strings whereby the bars may yieldingly glide above the free ofthe strings, a strip on said bracket adjacent and parallel to each saidbar, said strips bearing musical scale notations and beinglongitudinally adjustable selectively to various positions on saidbrackets, and indicia on said bars relatable to the scale notations onthe strips.

RICHARD W. KONTER.

